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CRIME

World’s worst burglar locks himself in house

A would-be burglar in Bonn called the police on himself in the early hours of Saturday – after getting locked inside the house he was trying to loot.

Published: 12 October 2015 16:43 CEST
World's worst burglar locks himself in house
Photo: DPA

The 43-year-old tried to rob a family home in the west German town of Bonn, police said in a press release.

Having failed to break open the front door, the man clambered over a garden gate and entered the house through a set of patio doors, police reported.

During his raid he grabbed a Notebook and mobile phone, as well as some snacks for the journey home.

Not content with this haul, he then made for the storeroom.

But when he got there the doors slammed shut behind him – and due to a fault, could not be opened from inside.

After desperate attempts to free himself, the man finally called the police to come to his aid.

Officers rescued the sheepish burglar from the storeroom, before arresting him.

The man is already known to police in connection with past burglaries.

After officers had finished their inquiries, he was released in agreement with Bonn state prosecution. An investigation into the incident continues.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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